


Chasing Cars

by solaris82



Category: Star Trek
Genre: Alternate Universe, Happy Ending, Light Angst, M/M, Sad, Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 07:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8154820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/solaris82/pseuds/solaris82
Summary: What if Jim never finished the Academy? What would become of him? And what, or whom, would he have to leave behind?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Ok. It’s my first Star Trek story and the first songfic ever.  
> This is the translation of my German story with the same title. In addition, I’m not an English native and I have no beta reader (so bear with me). All grammatical and spelling mistakes are my own.
> 
> The lyrics (italic type) belong to Snow Patrol, and Star Trek and its characters to Paramount.  
> Have fun

**Chasing Cars**

  


“You did what?!?“ 

_We do it all_

Jim looked shocked and incredulous at the people before him. He must have misheard. They couldn’t do that. 

_Everything_

Yet the glance Pike sent him and the fact that his mother avoided his gaze made his heart beat faster. He felt his stomach cramp. 

_On our own_

“Believe me, son. It’s better this way.” Pike tried to put his mind at ease, but Jim was not having any of it. “I’m not your son, Captain!” He spat the last word and recoiled when Pike tried to put a hand on his shoulder.

“Jimmy…please!” Winona now looked at him pleadingly. “You’re wasting your breath, mother! You already wreaked plenty of havoc. Is it not enough that you ruined my childhood?” His words struck her like a blow but he didn’t care. She just destroyed his biggest dream and it seemed she wasn’t even apologetic about the whole mess. 

_We don’t need_  

“We can still talk calmly about everything, Jim. There are so many other possibilities than serving on a ship…” Pike fell silent when Jim’s murderous glare met his.

“Other possibilities…” His voice was chilling. “My only wish was to someday become a captain on a starship…my only wish!” He looked at Pike, snorting with rage, before he turned his sorrow, his furry, his frustration and yes…his whole contempt to his mother. “You don’t want me to serve on a Federation starship? It seems that you get your way. But don’t think, for only one instant, that you can bind me to earth or to you…mother!” 

_Anything_

Without averting his eyes from the two people who, a moment ago, destroyed his previous life he turned to the computer console. “Computer…” An acoustic signal indicated that the console was working. “I call for immediate resignation from Starfleet Academy on grounds of Academy regulation two-three-nine c paragraph three. James Tiberius Kirk. Service number SC937-0176CEC. Confirm.”

The horror stricken looks of Pike and his mother brought him some satisfaction. But now they couldn’t do a thing against it. “Confirmed. James Tiberius Kirk has resigned his services to Starfleet Academy, effective immediately. The former cadet has six hours to clear his dorm room and to return his uniform as well as any other implements provided by the Academy.” “Perfect…Computer, that’s all.” A repeated signal sealed his end at Starfleet.

“Jim…” it was only a whisper. However, he could muster neither understanding nor pity and even less forgiveness. “As you can see, mother, I can’t stay any longer. Where I will go from here? I don’t know. Hopefully as far away from earth and from you as possible! I wish you a pleasant life, mother. And I hope I never have to see you again!” 

_Or anyone_

_  
_

\----____♯♥♯____----  


  


“Jim?” The voice sounded insecure and doubtfully. It constricted his heart.  


_I don’t quite know_

He packed some last shirts in the tote that contained all he would carry to his new life beyond earth and far away from Starfleet. There was only one thing he couldn’t take with him. Slowly he turned to the door.

_How to say_

It was an unusual sight. Normally he dominated a room as soon as he entered it. Prospective officers as well as professors became silent at the sight of him. He demanded respect through his sheer charisma. However, at this very moment no one would have recognized him. He appeared small, uncertain. And fraught with sorrow.

Jim had to gulp. “Spock.”

_How I feel_

The Vulcan entered the dorm room and closed the door. He was silent for a long time with an unreadable look on his face before he began to talk. “I heard what happened.” He struggled for words. “I am sorry.”

Jim teared up and he hadn’t the strength to hold them back. “Me too.”

_Those three words_

They had taken so much more from him than merely his career or his dream of his own command. They had stolen from him his chance, his hope for a future. A common future. He became painfully aware of that when Spock took the last few steps to embrace him.

_Are said too much_

He clawed his fingers into the Vulcan’s sweater. If it were up to him he would never release him. Yet they barely had half an hour left before his six hours were up and he had to arrive at the shuttle port. He grudgingly peeled himself away from the hug and peered into the warm brown eyes. “I would have given almost anything to fly to the stars with you, Spock. But now…I cannot…”

“Shush” the Vulcan put a finger to his lips to stop him. “I know, Jim. For me it is exactly the same. But it should not be.” He raised his hand further to wipe away the tears on his cheek. 

“Spock.” He nuzzled his face into the hotter than human palm and kissed it. “Jim…whatever happens, wherever our paths may lead us…I am sure we will meet again.” Jim looked at him doubtfully and got a barely there but no doubt optimistic smile in return. “Isn’t that a very romantic notion, Spock?”

“On the contrary, Jim. I calculated it several times. With your stubbornness and preference for space and with my discipline and absolute volition to find you again the odds are eighty-two point one nine percent.” “How could I ever contradict that…Spock…” There were fresh tears in his eyes.

“I know, Jim. I know.”

_They’re not enough_

  


\----____♯♥♯____----

  


The way seemed to go on endlessly, the time to stand still. An illogical assumption, he knew that. Nevertheless, he perceived it as such.

_I need your grace_

The distress signal from Vulcan was startling for everyone and while there was no reason for it, he felt fear settle in his mind.

_To remind me_

When they reached Vulcan and went under warp they were offered a terrible sight. An enormous spaceship darkened the Vulcan sun ahead of them. The Federation ships who had started shortly before them where trying to fly standard attack manoeuvers without apparent success.

At that very moment the USS Farragut burst apart in one giant fireball and the Yorktown had to withdraw badly damaged. Aside from that they could see several smaller vessels who attacked the giant ship nonstop. They were evidently a lot more successful than their bigger combatants, for there were multiple explosions where they assailed the outer hull. Captain Pike joined the formation of attacking ships without hesitation while Spock and the other scientists analyzed the drill reaching from the giant ship into Vulcan’s atmosphere and its signal that blocked their communication.

The findings were alarming.

_To find my own_

  


\----____♯♥♯____----

  


In the end the pirates were the ones to save Vulcan. After the destruction of the drill and its interfering signal Lieutenant Uhura was able to tap into the comm-channel of the small ships. They turned out to be a fleet of space pirates from the outer borders of the Orion Union.

One of their ships broke through the outer hull of the giant ship whereupon both the pirates and the Federation focused their fire on that spot in order to destroy it at last…

_Forget what we’re told_

What no one could have anticipated was the massive explosion and the formation of a black hole. Its proximity to Vulcan was risky, yet by some stroke of sheer luck the planet survived it almost unscathed. Apparently created from unstable matter the black hole consumed itself after a short while. It left barely a trace of its short lived existence.

_Before we get too old_

After a short period of ominous silence, the first messages arrived from the planet’s surface. There had been several large earthquakes and a large number of dwellings had been destroyed. The number of dead were estimated at several thousand, yet the planet survived.

When he got a personal message from his mother he felt the fear, which had accompanied him the whole time, dissolve. He could breathe free again.

_Show me a garden that’s bursting into life_

  


\----____♯♥♯____----

  


Captain Pike established contact with the pirate fleet and after a brief back and forth got patched through to the leading ship and its commanding officer. To the surprise of all it was not an Orion who met them but a female Romulan.

_All that I am_

“Captain Pike. I am T’Rul, the current Commander of Chief of the free Unionfleet.”

“Captain T’Rul. On behalf of the Federation and especially of the Vulcan people I thank you and your captains. Without you, everything could have panned out much more differently.”

_All that I ever was_

“Then you should thank my chief tactician and First Officer, Captain Pike. Had it not been for him we neither would have known of this attack nor would we have been on the spot in time to help.” She looked to the side beyond the screen and nodded once. A man stepped up to her and the bridge crew of the Enterprise held their breath.

“Captain Pike.” His voice had a cynical undertone and his eyes glinted as blue as the sky above earth.

Spock stepped forward unconsciously. “Jim…”

_Is there in your perfect eyes, they’re all I can see_

  


\----____♯♥♯____----

  


It took several hours before the first chaos had settled down. The undamaged ships of the Federation had stayed to help with clean up and care of the injured. From the pirate fleet, only the leading vessel and two escort ships remained. They also engaged in the relief effort.

_If I lay here_

Spock had beamed down to the High Council to check its integrity as well as to inform its member of the events. The whole time his thoughts were with one person. And when he stepped out of the building he was standing there, not twenty feet away. 

_If I just lay here_

One look was all it took and in the next moment he was in his arms. It felt like something was finally melting inside him.

“You were right…” it was little more than a whisper. “What was I right about?” “That we would see each other again…”

Spock relaxed his arms to look him in the face. “I never doubted it. And if I have my way we never will lose sight of each other again.”

Jim began to beam with joy and Spock bent over to seal their pact with a very human kiss. There were still many questions to answer and hurdles to overcome. But that could wait. This moment belonged to them. 

_Would you lie with me and just forget the world?_

  


THE END

**Author's Note:**

> I would welcome constructive criticism.


End file.
